Pantheon considers the following individuals to be the top ten most legendary Czech tennis players of all time. The HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a measure that collects information about a biography's internet popularity, is used to rank this list of notable Czech Tennis Players. To see the full list of Czech Tennis Players, go to the rankings page.
1. Ivan Lendl (1960 - )
Ivan Lendl is the most renowned Czech tennis player, with an HPI of 70.76. On Wikipedia, his biography has been translated into 52 different languages.
Ivan Lendl (Czech pronunciation: [van lndl]; born March 7, 1960) is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. He held the world’s number one ranking for 270 weeks and won 94 singles championships. He won eight Grand Slam championships and finished second in a record-tying 11 Grand Slam finals (tied with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic), making him the first male player to reach 19 Grand Slam finals. He also won seven year-end titles and participated in an unprecedented eight straight US Open finals. Lendl created a new style of tennis by focusing on his forehand, which he struck forcefully and with heavy topspin, and his success is credited with helping to popularise the now-common aggressive baseline power tennis. Following his retirement, he became a tennis instructor for a number of players. Andy Murray, in particular, benefited from his assistance, as he won three major championships and rose to the top of the rankings.
2. Martina Navratilova (1956 - )
Martina Navratilova is the second most renowned Czech tennis player, with an HPI of 70.57. Her autobiography has been published in 74 languages.
Martina Navratilova (Czech: Martina Navrátilová [marcna navraclova] (listen); née ubertová [ubrtova]; born October 18, 1956) is a former professional tennis player and coach who was born in Prague, Czech Republic. Navratilova, widely regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles for a total of 59 Grand Slam titles, setting an Open Era record for the most Grand Slam titles won by a single player. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including nine times in a row from 1982 to 1990, and won the women's singles championship a record nine times (eclipsing Helen Wills Moody's eight Wimbledon wins), including six in a row from 1982 to 1990. Navratilova was the WTA world No. 1 in singles for 332 weeks, second only to Steffi Graf, and in doubles for a record 237 weeks, making her the first player in history to hold the top position in both singles and doubles for more than 200 weeks. Navratilova, along with Margaret Court and Doris Hart, is one of only three female tennis players to have completed a Career Grand Slam in women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles dubbed the "Grand Slam Boxed Set." Navratilova, Margaret Court, and Maureen Connolly are tied for the most major singles championships in a row. She earned her final major championship in 2006, only weeks before her 50th birthday, when she won the mixed doubles title at the US Open, 32 years after her first major win in 1974. She was born in Czechoslovakia and lost her citizenship when, at the age of 18, she applied for political asylum in the United States and was given temporary residency. The Czechoslovak Sports Federation advised Navratilova at the time that she was becoming too Americanized and that she should return to school and make tennis a secondary sport. In 1981, Navratilova became a US citizen. She reclaimed her Czech citizenship on January 9, 2008. She said that she has not renounced her US citizenship and has no plans to do so, and that her decision to regain Czech nationality was not influenced by politics. I adore my home country and the fact that it is today a free and democratic nation. My home, however, is in the United States. I've lived in America since 1975 and want to stay for the rest of my life. This is my home, and I feel compelled to express my admiration for the United States. I live here, vote here, pay my taxes here, and yes, I will serve on a jury... any stories claiming I am leaving or, more importantly, denying my American citizenship are just false and, quite bluntly, disrespectful.
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3. Jaroslav Drobný (1921 - 2001)
Jaroslav Drobn is the third most renowned Czech tennis player, with an HPI of 65.86. His autobiography has been published in 24 languages.
Jaroslav Drobn (Czech pronunciation: [jaroslav drobni]; October 12, 1921 – September 13, 2001) was a World No. 1 amateur tennis player and ice hockey player. In 1949, he left Czechoslovakia and traveled as an Egyptian citizen until obtaining a British citizen in 1959, where he died in 2001. He was the first and, to this day, only African-born player to win the Wimbledon Championships in 1954. (aside from dual citizen Roger Federer, who holds South African citizenship but officially represents only Switzerland in sports).
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4. Jan Kodeš (1946 - )
Jan Kode is the fourth most renowned Czech tennis player, with an HPI of 64.90. His autobiography has been published in 33 languages.
Jan Kode (March 1, 1946) is a former Czech tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles in the early 1970s. His biggest triumph came at the Stade Roland Garros, when he won the French Open on clay. He won the singles championship there in 1970, defeating eljko Franulovi in straight sets in the final, and again in 1971, defeating Ilie Năstase in four sets in the final. He also won Wimbledon on grass in 1973, despite the fact that 13 of the top 16 players and a total of 81 players boycotted the event that year because to the International Lawn Tennis Federation's decision to ban Nikola Pili from the tournament (ILTF). In the semifinals, Kode defeated local favourite Roger Taylor in five sets, and in the final, he defeated Alex Metreveli in three sets. Kode never competed in the Australian Open, although he was a two-time runner-up in the US Open, losing in five sets to John Newcombe in 1971 and 1973. In September 1973, he achieved his best ATP rating of world No. 5. He won nine top-level singles championships and 17 top-level doubles titles during the open era. In 1990, Kode was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Czech Olympic Committee presented him with the Czech Fair Play Award in 2013. He graduated from Prague University with a degree in economics.
5. Hedwiga Rosenbaumová (1864 - 1939)
Hedwiga Rosenbaumová is the fifth most renowned Czech tennis player, with an HPI of 61.11. Her autobiography has been published in 19 languages.
Hedwiga Rosenbaumová, commonly known as Hedwig Rosenbaum, was a tennis player who represented Bohemia from July 3, 1864 until July 31, 1939. At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, she won two bronze medals in tennis, in the women's singles and mixed doubles alongside Archibald Warden of Great Britain. She was the first woman from Bohemia to compete in the Olympics.
